Friday, November 30, 2012

That Darn Top Step!



The Slumberland Guest House whose tag line is “Just Ideal for Resting” is my home away from home here in Arua. I always stay in the same room (102) and I know most of the staff. The experience here this trip has been significantly different because of the availability of 24 hour power. I even managed a hot bath this morning, with enough water in the tub to cover my knees! But there is one thing that I just can’t get used to – that darn top step! Pictured to the left, you will see that the top step of the staircase is almost twice the height of the other steps. I’m not sure whether this was an architectural whim, or just a big OOPS from the builder, but it continues to confound me. As I stumble to bed at night I trip up it and as I stumble bleary-eyed to breakfast each morning I fall down it! As you can see there is a lot of stumbling going on here in Arua! You would think I would learn, but my learning curve is extremely shallow, after all there is often 8 hours between my tripping up and my falling down. Plenty of time to forget! I’m in my dinner wait period right now – that period of time between ordering food and actually getting it. The wait varies between 1 and 2 hours, depending on something, but I’m never sure what. Still, since I’m featuring the step in my blog, I hope I remember it on the way down to eat in a few minutes – or an hour or so!

Back to the serious stuff for those who struggle to see the funny side of life.

Three major meetings today. The first was between Ted, Blasio and me, in which we talked through our work here in Arua and the new deals we have in the pipeline.  Then we met with Samuel our egg producer. We had agreed a loan earlier in the week, but we are so impressed by the opportunity and the young man, that we have decided to offer an equity investment rather than make him a loan. This is a brand new approach for us, and we have had to think through all the issues of getting liquidity in a privately held company in Uganda. Eventually, we decided upon a dividend strategy with a put and call option after 3 and 5 years respectively. This more accurately reflects the risk reward that we find here and it will be a good test case for potentially bigger investments for Mango Fund.

Ah the dinner bell – I’ll be right back! Excellent dinner – vegetable curry. But we lost power. Ted and I ate much of our dinner by the light of my mobile phone resting on top of an upturned water bottle, Quite an interesting effect and to be recommended! This seems like the more normal Slumberland experience, but the back-up generator seems to be working fine! 

Back to our meetings.

The final meeting was with my dear friend Isaac who is the head of Here is Life (HIL), a ministry aimed at the people of Aringa – who are largely Moslem.  HIL has three main ministry areas:  a radio station, a translation ministry and a school and farm.  While HIL has had many wonderful ministry years, the school and radio station lose significant money and this puts great pressure on the entire ministry. The translation ministry has just celebrated the completion of the New Testament in the Aringa language. The Bible is now the primary text in many primary schools (can you imagine that in the US?). Isaac and I have had many strategic discussions over the years and today we talked through the options for HIL. I believe that at the end of our session we had felt led by the Holy Spirit in a certain direction, and I felt the weight lift from Isaac’s shoulders. He will now convene his Board to continue the discernment process with this latest input. Please pray for Isaac, he is a wonderful man of God and his heart for the lost is infectious.

All in all another great day in Arua. Praise God!
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The Genesis of the 5810 Project

Vision

When Jesus was asked what was the most important command he answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your heart and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”

As a follower of Jesus, it is challenging to obey these commands, particularly with regard to my neighbors.
How can I love my neighbors? How can I love my neighbors in a global context? How can I love my neighbors who are struggling to thrive in developing countries?

The classic response of western Christians has been to “send”. Whether we send those that have been called to vocational ministry, or send money and resources to “give to the poor”, or occasionally send ourselves on short-term missions trips. Each of these has value, but is this enough? Is it effective? Is it all that God calls us to?

The questions become more complex when you consider that no matter how much money we have spent on the “war on poverty” over decades, the problem remains as acute as ever. We are not winning the war, even here in the US. Are there other approaches?

As I struggled with these ideas, I was led to consider Isaiah Chapter 58. Here God tells us what true fasting is – to loose the chains of injustice; to set the oppressed free; to share food with the hungry; and to provide the poor with shelter. Then verse 10 says “…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.”

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of others …….”

While we should send, we need to spend too.

What does it look like to spend ourselves?
For me I have been led to spend myself as follows:
• To go to a developing country, and to go repeatedly.
• To develop personal relationships with innovative leaders
• To use my own specific gifting and experience in business
• To find ways to move people out of the poverty cycle on a sustainable basis
• To invest money in parallel with my activities
• To share the love of Christ with my neighbor and to spend myself on their behalf.

5810 Project

The 5810 Project is predicated on the belief that while “teaching a man to fish” will provide him with a fish diet for a lifetime, it will not lead him out of poverty. To escape poverty people need to develop sustainable business activities. The 5810 Project’s vision is to provide an opportunity for business people from developed countries to share the love of Christ with their neighbor by “spending” themselves on behalf of others who are trying to build businesses and break the poverty cycle.

The 5810 Project is currently focused on two principal activities in Uganda.

Arua
Arua is a significant market town in the NW of Uganda, with Sudan to the north and Congo to the West. It is an agricultural market town that has grown because of government and NGO activity primarily in S. Sudan, but now increasingly in E. Congo. While the town has prospered and grown, the native Aruans have not enjoyed this economic boon.

Our efforts in Arua are centered on helping the church and Christian business people develop sustainable businesses.
We work with businesspeople to analyze the market situation in Arua, to offer training sessions, to encourage and mentor entrpreneurs and to invest in their businesses.

Kampala
Jesus Commissioned Ministries (“JCM”) is a church founded in 2000 serving three poor communities on the outskirts of Kampala. The leadership of JCM has a heart to reach the many underprivileged children in the communities it serves. Without education, there is little hope for these children to thrive. While education is available, the costs are prohibitive for most families. JCM has established Mercy Junior School (elementary) for these children. In addition to education, the children receive uniforms, food and school materials. The school currently has over 50 pupils in two Pre-K classes and Primary 1 (P1)and Primary 2 (p2) and is building classrooms for P3,4 & 5 for completion in the spring of 2011.

The 5810 Project has helped Mercy Junior School develop its rudimentary facilities and to buy a neighboring plot of land for expansion. We also advise the administrators of the school on business and education practices and have steered them through a process of becoming a fee-baseda significant drive to parent involvement and elevated educational standards and outcomes.

Opportunity
We believe that the 5810 Project offers a significant opportunity for the body of Christ:
• Grass roots opportunity to create sustainable businesses and deliver families and communities out of the oppression of poverty.
• Many business opportunities are apparent with relatively small investment levels necessary.
• Opportunities for talented business people to connect personally with emerging entrepreneurs and spend themselves on them.
• Opportunity for the body of Christ in the developed world to share the love of Christ with our neighbors in developing countries.
• Transformational impact on the “spender” and recipient alike!

If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me Andy Mills at amills@tkc.edu